David Ely

Words I've Looked Up While Reading Kraken

I’m about ¾ through China Miéville’s Kraken. Since my trusty Ninjawords iPhone app keeps a log of all the words I’ve looked up, I thought it’d be fun to list the ones I checked recently. Lots of the magic-y words he uses are pretty clear in context but it’s fun (for me) to get the clear definition.

afflatus: A sudden rush of creative
impulse or inspiration, often attributed to divine influence.

Throw in chthonic and oneiric, which I mostly remembered from earlier Miéville dictionary-diving (and Alan Moore and Grant Morrison), and what I find fascinating is that you get a pretty good idea of what kind of book Kraken is just from the words it contained that I didn’t know.